Camcorder Reviews

This is what you have been looking for.I love my Samsung DuoCam.It takes great pictures and the video mode is awesome.I love the night mode too.I actually used my Samsung to take a picture of my cousin's new car at night(it was pitch dark). Wow is all I can say! The picture came out great, it was crystal clear. I love that I can capture video on my memory card or miniDV, but I hate that there is no sound on the memory card playback. Of course when you download your video to computer you get sound.The software is little difficult to use but, I've mastered it now. Hint:READ the manual, it will save you some time.

I am currently looking for a good camera for an amature filmmaker. This one peaked my interest. I have a camera right now, but I can't figure out how to transfer video footage to my computer. Is this camera easy to transfer the footage to the computer? If so, are there any accesories you need to do so?

I would be highly grateful for the help. Thanks you

I love this camera. The video and picture quality is great. It is so easy to use and switch from video to still pictures. It is easy to manage your pictures on the computer also. I simply can't say enough good things about this camera. What a great feeling you get when you purchase something that lives up to the hype and expectations. A rare find!

Pros:

This is one of the cutest gadgets out there. It is:

Extremely light. This is important when you take long videos.

Has a good screen. It can be turned over to tape yourself (if you really want that).

Video files are really compact, even in 640x480 resolution due to mp4 compression.

Fairly good battery life, except when using the flash or if you like to review your videos over and over.


Low points:

Slow. As you could expect from the combination of high resolution and low price.

Bad pictures with low light, especially if you put your index finger in front of the flash (believe me, it's easy). Even if properly used, the flash will not really give you the best pictures at night.


In general I am convinced it is no match for a regular still picture camera, but as a video recorder it may become a nice tool. I purchased a 512megs high speed sd card and it works great. Practically you can record video until your batteries run out. As far as pictures it works fine as long as the sun is high. In my opinion it doesn't make any sense to use resolutions higher than 3M. It will only make your pictures bigger but with 3M quality (which by the way is also big enough for me).

Hope this helps... :-)

...so you're not gonna get "down-in-the-mud" information - but I've been waiting for this thing for awhile now and I'm excited to tell you what I've learned so far. First off, the camera is very "cheap" feeling - all plastic - and extremely light! Not that that is a bad thing - in fact, its size and weight is one of the reasons I ordered this. I put in my Sandisk 512MB card and it worked perfect. I took a few mins to go through the menu/setup - which is very straight forward - you can follow right along on the LCD screen for your information and its all spelled out. Once I had it set up, I took a few pics at the 2nd highest resolution - which was "4M" (according to the camera screen) - the flash went off and it took the picture - then the little red light on the camera continued to flash quickly for about 30 seconds - I guess its writing it to the mem card??? I'll have to check that one out... maybe the flash wasn't ready??? Don't really know. But I took the mem card out of the camera and put it in my computer to look at the quality - and it looked great! Just as good as my FujiFilm 3.1M camera. Then I tried to do some video - the room is kinda dark - and the camera really doesn't handle the darkness too well... but that does not surprise me - a few reviews I read on other sites said the same thing. But - with the lights on - at night - inside - it did okay. Thats all I have for now - I will write more when I spend more time with this...

As a previous owner of the Mustek dv3000,2500, and dv4500
this 12m keeps a professional look to it.
At steves digicam forum you can keep your fun going . Improvements are needed and they are low light situations, and night time video taking, but having such a device like this on a crountry side or in the wilderness, makes it light weight and not a headache to carry. fits in the palm of your hand with ease, and hides away in a tee-shirt pocket or Purse. pull it out 7 secs you got pics and vids ready for action, over a 30 sec pro camcorder.
tapeless and 2 hours of batery life is a fine way to go grrab a spare and your set.

Compitions would be your Digilife and creative labs Mustek is dedicated to the Northern Region happy trails.

Up to you, but I would buy a generic branded battery of the same type (Lithium BP522). I bought a generic battery and it works just as well -- saved me $50 !

Just so you know, the BP522 battery can be used for the entire ZR series from ZR20 up to ZR90. (I checked the Canon website to verify.). An extended battery is definitely needed because the one provided with the camcorder has such as short battery life. But you can buy a generic battery made by Energizer (ER-C590) for $60-70 at the typical home electronics stores (i.e. Circuit City and Best Buy). You can also go online and find 2.5 hour batteries for as low as $35.99. Can't say whether they last as long as this one, but my Energizer did last for about 3 years with intermittent use (filming my kids...you know how that goes...lots of taping for the 1st year and then less and less as time goes on...).

The battery is great, but Amazon offers the accessory kit with the same battery, plus a mini-dv tape and a carrying case for the same price. The case is useless for the ZR series, but might come in handy for some other purpose.

The sound is absolutely phenomonial as well as the picture.

I have owned a Panasonic DVD-LA95 and DVD-L50 and they are not even compariable to the SD-P2500. My friend has a Samsung L200 and it is not even on the same level even though the L200 has a bigger screen.

I cannot say enought good things about the SD-P2500. I don't understand why one of the other reviews says that it is too big to be portable, it is a perfect 8.9" portable dvd player. The picture quality is flawless. It has a really awesome 3-D on screen menu, a option to plug in your digital camera or has a memory card slot as well.

I highly recommend it!

I travel a lot, and since I bought SD-P2500 I cannot imagine travelling without it. While I never owned a competing model, I've looked at them, researched them and this is the one to get. 8.9'' screen is just the right size -- probably the biggest you can have and still call it portable. The sound and picture quality is simply great. Two headphone jacks can definitely be handy. The battery lasts, and charges fast. And now, four months later, I can also add that this DVD Player can live through a lot of abuse. :-)

My 16 month old daughter and 12 year old step-daughter love that I have purchased this portable dvd player. Long car rides will never be the same again. Plus I'm sure my husband will get a lot of use taking it to work with him. I own a 2002 Dodge Durango and this unit fits perfectly between the two front seats and with my youngest behind me in her car seat she can't reach the unit to kick it. Battery life is long and charges quickly. Picture quality and sound is so good I don't need headphones to enjoy anything I am watching. This unit isn't very expensive for all the quality you get out of it so don't buy the cheap Minitek models because this one smokes them all.

It doesn't come with a car adapter, but go on ebay and they sell them cheap. Because of the size of the screen it was hard to find a decent case because most of them will only accomidate barely 8 inches. I went to Circuit City and they sell a bag called "Targus" and this bag will do the trick. I even brought my Toshiba 2500 into the store and sized it up. Plus the bag holds extra dvd's and cables, really a good buy and I recommend picking it up because this one switches from a back-of-chair viewing to a suspension between the two front seats.

If you can get your hands on this please do so. I did my homework on portable dvd players for over 6 months and I am proud to say I know I couldn't have done any better.

If there were a lower rating than one star this item would more than earn it.

I almost returned the Accessory Genie 'Pro Series' battery 'kit' (charger, 120 volt converter, car converter, battery and carry sack)upon its arrival, and I wish I had. The charger and converters were obviously flimsy and poorly made, and nothing but the battery fits into the carry sack.

There was worse to come. I charged the battery, put it in the camera, ran the charge out over the next two weeks --and all but DESTROYED THE CAMERA -- an expensive EOS 10D-- trying to get the battery out of it!

For those of you with other models, removing the battery from the 10D is normally a pleasure: pull back a latch and the battery pops up just the right amount so that it's easy to grasp and slip out of its pocket.

The Accessory Genie battery is ever so slightly wider --enough wider that it had to be pushed into the battery pocket. I did a test removal before using it --it didn't come out as easily as the Canon battery, but it slid out with a little coaxing. However, only days later, the battery had swelled inside the camera.

I pulled the spring latch and the battery sat tight. I turned the camera upside down and the battery sat tight. I broke a chopsick (useful tool for avoiding damage or scratches) trying to pry the battery out. A good deal of force with a butter knife (safer than a screwdriver) finally moved the battery enough so that I could grip it with pliers -- couldn't budge it with my quite strong fingers.

I'm ordering another backup battery today-- a genuine Canon battery, and a genuine Canon charger/ converter for the car. It's not worth taking a chance with a thousand-dollar plus camera for the convenience of an all-in-one 'kit' or a lower price.

The battery fits only its own charger and takes hours longer than the Canon battery to charge, and didn't last as long --should anyone who's gotten this far still think of trying the Accessory Genie "equivalent."

This company, Accessory Genie, and its products have received uniformly bad reviews. If I'd thought to check reviews for other products I'd have saved myself a scare --and considerable time and money. I hope other Canon owners will be wiser than I, and check the aftermarket brands' and companies' OTHER reviews before buying, when there are non for the product they're interested in!

I am very impressed overall with the Kata R-102 photo Ruksack. It is well designed, comfortable to carry and looks good. Make no mistake it is a rucksack not a full size photo backpack. I carry 2 camera bodies, 2 lenses and a few accessories and it's full, it also gets narrow to the top so you are limited in what you stow along the top edge of the bag. I am happy with my Kata but for longer trips I still need a bigger bag.

Very well constructed and engineered backpack. So far I have been able to load DSLR with medium tele-zoom attached, 70-200mm tele zoom, flash, battery chargers, misc accessories and still have room for 2 more "reasonable" length lenses. Comfortable pack to lug around. Nice that you can access camera without opening entire pack. Like the d-loops on the shoulder straps. Would have liked to have received more and diverse dividers but not critical.

I am putting a Nikon D70 in the Kata 102 and while it is snug, I know I can put a larger camera in the section designed for the camera. Kata's product information states that the "R-102 is designed to hold a Digital/SLR body with 80-200/300mm lens attached, extra lenses or a mini DV camcorder and many more additional accessories."

I am not disappointed in the quality of this bag. It has YKK zippers that, for outdoor products, is the gold standard in construction. The stitching and material are top notch.

The R-102 comes with a system to attach a large tripod to the backpack. It consists of a "pouch" to hold 2 of the tripods legs and then a strap to hold the tripod securely at the top. You can still open the bag and all the zippers with the tripod attached. Another feature that is indicative of a well designed backpack is not only is there the "main" zipper that opens the pack in half but there is another zipper in the front of the bag that opens only enough to reveal the camera section and nothing else.

The bag is only one part of the "Kata system." I can attach a waist belt harness and additional "hip" and a shoulder type bag to the front of the waist sling if I wanted. It does not mealy have shoulder straps but a built in section of material that takes much of the weight off the shoulders and transfers some of the weight to the area between the shoulder blades. I have never seen anything like it.

The bag is not gaudy but close inspection of the bag might reveal that it is not a normal backpack. In addition, with the tripod attached it is pretty obvious what is going on. I feel safe in my town but for areas where there is a lot of crime one might consider a less "techkie" look the bag has for a more plain design (of course leaving the tripod at home). If a person put all the extra accessories on the bag you would definitely attract attention.

I like to ride my bike for exercise and fun. I used to use a shoulder bag that was not designed to be worn on a bike although I could do it, but because it was so awkward, I rarely took my camera with me. With the backpack, I have already developed the habit of putting it on before I leave my house. I have my camera and mini-DVD inside. If I know I am specifically going out to get pics I attach the tripod, if I am just going out for an errand or whatever I will still don the pack but leave the tripod at home.

I really like the bag compared to my shoulder bag. I can fit a sandwich in the R-102, attach a water bottle or whatever. In addition, it comes with a strap system and neck strap to hold the camera outside the pack, attached to the pack so the camera is not wrapped around your neck. This is really a great feature. The camera is secure but available for immediate use. This additional harness can be quickly and easily be removed when not in use. I don't like a bag with all kind of extra straps that hang down. In addition, I do not fly but I read that the bag complies with airline regulations concerning carry-on luggage. The K-102 will fit in an overhead compartment or under the front seat of a passenger jet.

The backpack's shoulder straps are thick and padded and is a pleasure to wear. I have been taking my camera everywhere with me and taking a lot more pics as a result. Loaded, it is not too heavy and can carry the right amount of goods. I have looked at other packs and while bigger they also look a lot more heavy.

I am very impressed with this bag.